The Ohio state auditor is investigating the practice of "scrubbing," or dropping students from attendance rolls so they don't count against test scores. The former El Paso superintendent is in prison for using truant officers to encourage at-risk students to drop out.

Organized, systematic cheating is the inevitable result of attaching high stakes to standardized tests.

The latest example came Good Friday when an Atlanta grand jury indicted 35 teachers, administrators and principals under laws meant to target the mafia. Dr. Beverly Hall, since-retired superintendent, faces charges of "racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements." In 2009, she was named National Superintendent of the Year.

The real problem with uncovering cheating is that it's hard to get education officials to look. States use scores to evaluate teachers, close schools and promote children. But No Child Left Behind offers no incentive to catch cheating.

When a teacher reported cheating in a Mobile school to her principal, he told the teacher to "sleep on it." The education department investigated but skipped a computer analysis to screen for erasures. "You start doing that, you're on a witch hunt," said the education commissioner.

Closing schools or giving principals cash bonuses based on test results is new. That started when then-Gov. George W. Bush instituted a business mind-set and measured all Texas schools by their tests scores. Dropouts rose, preparing for the tests ate up half the school year, and scores rose. Bush proclaimed it the "Texas Miracle." Many of the schools he cited as proof later were investigated, including Wesley Elementary in Houston, where the principal coached teachers "to administer a test the Wesley way," standing behind a students until they chose the correct answer.

At least Charlie Brown had the good sense to wonder whether Lucy would hold the football when he tried to kick it. When it comes to testing, we keep ending up on our backs, wondering how teachers and administrators could have scammed the system yet again. And as long as we link rewards and punishments to how our kids fill in ovals, we're going to experience an endless cycle of cheating.

There's a reason we close our eyes when trying to believe miracles in education. If we opened our eyes, we'd have to face the facts that high-stakes standardized testing isn't working.

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